


Night Shift

by rufus



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Bring Back Black, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-02-22
Updated: 2013-02-22
Packaged: 2017-12-03 06:18:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,447
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/695162
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rufus/pseuds/rufus
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Working the night shift at the new Magical Beings Center at St. Mungo's was frequently tedious, but it paid well. It also provided Remus with just enough human (or at least mostly-human) contact to keep him from going completely insane.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Night Shift

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by the story of [ Oscar the Death Cat ](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oscar_the_cat). Originally published on LJ in September of 2007.

Working the night shift at the new Magical Beings Center at St. Mungo's was frequently tedious, but it paid well. It also provided Remus with just enough human (or at least mostly-human) contact to keep him from going completely insane.

The tasks assigned to him (helping with intake, monitoring the waiting room, keeping an ear out for anyone ringing the call button) were not especially difficult, which was something of a refreshing change of pace. After two months, his supervisor added "administer medication" to his list, which meant he got to stretch his legs two or three times a night. It also meant he got to talk to more people, and that (usually) wasn't so bad either.

Sometimes it was awkward, though, especially when a patient was very sick, or in a lot of pain. Remus got very good at casting Protego and ducking flowerpots. He also learned to carry an emergency stash of tissue in his pockets and up his sleeves, in case he encountered anyone who might need them.

He was a week into his third month when he saw (or thought he saw) a flicker of a black furry tail around a corner late one night.

"Hello? Can I help you?" he called out, thinking perhaps it was a visitor from another part of the hospital, who had got lost on the way to the Magical Accidents ward.

But there was no answer, and when he went to investigate, the corridor was empty. Remus shook his head and went back to administering calming draughts to hysterical vampires.

Two days later he saw it again, only more so: a furry tail, and a set of furry haunches, headed in to the room occupied by an elderly goblin. He set down the bottle of Pepper-Up he was holding and followed them. He was astonished to find them (and the rest of the enormous black dog to which they were attached) sleeping peacefully at the feet of the patient.

The dog looked quite like a Grim (like Padfoot) but it was far too sturdy. And Grims, as far as Remus knew, were not in the habit of hanging around long enough to shed on someone's sickbed. It was either another Animagus or a pet smuggled in by well-meaning family members.

"Sir?" Remus called out, and stepped closer to the bed. "Sir, there's no –"

The dog opened his (silver) eyes and raised his head, and Remus took a step backwards. The goblin moaned in his sleep and the dog nudged his legs gently with his massive head, then settled back down, still looking at Remus. Thoroughly rattled, Remus beat a retreat to the front desk.

Five hours later, the goblin died.

Remus handed tissues to several grieving family members and did not say a single word about big black dogs.

A week later, Remus was bringing a hot cup of tea to a Centaur with the 'flu when he saw the dog again. This time the animal was nestled next to an ailing vampire. Remus drew himself up and stepped into the room, prepared to be very firm. His resolve weakened, however, when he noticed the way the vampire's fingers were clutching at the dog's fur. Then the dog's tail started thumping on the bed, and it grinned at him. Remus managed to catch the tea cup before it fell, and fled down the corridor.

The vampire died just as Remus was going off his shift.

Remus spent the rest of the morning in the library of Grimmauld Place, answering Harry's anxious queries with polite smiles and drinking his bodyweight in tea. He read everything he could find on the subjects of resurrection, Death Omens, and uniqueness of forms amongst Animagi, but none of them said anything particularly useful.

Two weeks passed. Remus asked some discreet questions of the clinical staff, but from what he could gather, no one had seen anything out of the ordinary. _Padfoot was always good at hiding_ , a small voice murmured in the back of his mind, but he ignored it. In fact Remus had almost convinced himself he had hallucinated the whole thing until the night he went out for his regular 9 PM medication rounds and found the dog curled up in a tight, awkward little ball next to a werewolf suffering through the final stages of Odin's Disease.

Remus swallowed carefully and walked in the room. The werewolf was elderly – especially for a werewolf – and his hair was almost completely grey. His pale, narrow face was heavily scarred, and his nose looked as though it had been broken several times. When Remus checked the chart, he saw the patient had been brought into the Center not long after Remus had started there himself. Remus also noticed that the patient's family had only come in to see him twice, and (according to the coded notes in the chart) had been thoroughly unpleasant to the staff on both occasions.

_I doubt they'll be chuffed to find him sharing a bed with a dog, then,_ Remus thought, as he watched the dog lick the werewolf's twisted hands. He realized he must have made a noise when the dog raised his head and tilted his ears forward. The dog's expression was both fierce and terribly sad, and Remus' chest tightened in sympathy.

"I reckon I should Floo his family," he said softly, and took a careful step towards the bed. "They mightn't be very happy to see you, though."

The dog made a whuffling noise, and Remus held out his hand to be sniffed. _I'll take you up front with me for an hour or two,_ he decided. _I've got half a sandwich in my bag, and no-one ever checks under the desk –_

Remus was startled out of his thoughts when the dog uncurled, jumped off the bed and rippled into Sirius Black, all in one smooth movement. They stood there staring at each other for a moment, and then Remus was almost knocked over from the force of Sirius' embrace.

"Not dying," Sirius said, as he crushed Remus against his chest, his raspy voice thick with relief.

"Definitely not," Remus whispered into Sirius' hair, and nuzzled at his neck. "Padfoot, how –"

"I found a loophole, Moony," Sirius said, and then they were kissing. Sirius tasted vaguely of overboiled mutton, but Remus found he didn't much care.

After a minute Sirius stepped back, and Remus was able to get a proper look at him. Aside from the plain black robes he was wearing and the grey streaks in his hair, Sirius looked much as he had on the day he had died. Remus glanced at the frail old man on the bed, then back at Sirius, and arched an eyebrow.

"He did smell a bit off," Sirius muttered, and ducked his head, the tips of his ears turning pink. "It's hard to keep track of time, back there, and . . . well . . . we are in a hospital. Everything smells a bit funny. And then I saw you, and thought you might be a grandson, or a cousin . . ."

"Ah," Remus murmured, still a little dizzy from the kiss, and from shock. "Just so you know, you've been dead fifteen years, and the Lupin line still ends with me. Uncle Augustus never fulfilled his dynastic obligations either. Now what's this about a loophole?"

"I'm allowed to come back to lead family members over. Fortunately, I'm related to nearly everyone," Sirius said, his mouth curving into a broad smile.

"Even the goblin?" Remus asked, before he could stop himself.

"Fourth cousin, eight times removed, through Isla Black," Serius replied promptly, and Remus blinked a couple of times before he started laughing.

"The vampire was a Yaxley," Sirius said, and Remus sat down heavily in a nearby chair.

"You're really back," he murmured, and put his head between his knees.

"And you're really alive," Sirius whispered, kneeling down beside Remus and sliding a hand over his shoulder and into his hair.

Remus leaned into the touch and suddenly they were kissing again, slowly and more carefully than before. Sometime later a bell sounded in the corridor, and Remus pulled away, abruptly reminded of where he was, and what he was supposed to be doing. Sirius made a noise that conveyed both understanding and disappointment, and rolled to his feet.

"I'll meet you up front in a couple of hours, yeah?" Sirius said, running a hand through his hair. "We can go and have a pint and you can tell me what I've missed."

Remus nodded automatically, and then Sirius rippled back into Padfoot, and jumped up on the bed. Then bell sounded again, loudly, and Remus hurried to answer it.


End file.
